Colorado Avalanche / NHL

Avalanche coach Patrick Roy says Matt Duchene will try skating Monday

Colorado coach Patrick Roy praised his players when talking to the media after the game. The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-2 at the Pepsi Center Saturday night, April 19, 2014 in an NHL playoff game. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

Pulling his suitcase Sunday, Matt Duchene walked into the Signature Flight Support terminal near Denver International Airport.

For the record, Duchene walked briskly.

With the Avalanche holding a 2-0, first-round series lead over Minnesota, and Game 3 set for Monday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the team didn't practice Sunday before convening to catch a chartered flight to the Twin Cities area. Among the traveling party were Duchene and John Mitchell, neither of whom played in the first two games of the series.

But the news of the day came when Avalanche coach Patrick Roy indicated that Duchene "probably" would start skating again Monday in St. Paul.

"That will be his first time on the ice, and we'll see how it goes," Roy said of Duchene, who suffered a medial collateral ligament injury March 29 against the San Jose Sharks and hasn't played since.

Roy emphasized, "We're not going to push. We're going to be very smart about when he's going to come back. He's going to want to play soon, and it's going to be up to our doctors and (trainers) Matt (Sokolow- ski) and Scotty (Woodward) to determine if he's ready to play."

Duchene still isn't expected to play in the series against the Wild, and his rehabilitation attempts still will be geared toward a possible return in the second round, if the Avalanche advances to meet the winner of the St. Louis-Chicago series, which the Blues lead 2-0. Of course, given the protocol of take nothing for granted and avoid bulletin board (or Twitter?) fodder, nobody connected to the Avalanche is going to be publicly presumptuous about advancing to the next round.

But if the Avalanche does move on, Duchene likely will be available, and he'd almost certainly step back in to center the line, with Ryan O'Reilly (now playing center) moving back to wing.

Mitchell's situation is a bit more vague. He suffered a concussion against Vancouver on April 10 and hasn't played since. He isn't expected to play in the Minnesota series, either, and his inclusion in the traveling party isn't a sign that the prognosis has changed.

Spotlight on Matt Moulson: The Wild acquired him at the trade deadline to be a factor in the playoffs, but so far in this series, he hasn't been much of one. He has no points and only four shots on net through the first two games. But he is a three-time 30-goal scorer and requires the proper defensive attention. He was a teammate for a few years of Avalanche winger P.A. Parenteau's with the New York Islanders.

NOTEBOOK

Avalanche: The team took Sunday off from hockey activities. ... Nathan MacKinnon's seven points match a league record for most points in the first two playoff games of an NHL career: Odie Cleghorn did it for Montreal in 1919 and Barry Pederson with Boston in 1982. ... Matt Duchene (knee) and John Mitchell (concussion) won't play in Game 3. ... MacKinnon and Paul Stastny are the first Avalanche players with consecutive three-point games in the postseason since Theo Fleury did it May 1 and 3, 1999. Fleury had three points each in Game 5 and Game 6 to close out a 1999 Western Conference quarterfinal series against San Jose.

Wild: Minnesota has won 53.5 percent of the face offs in this series. ... The Wild is outshooting the Avalanche in the series, averaging 32.5 shots on goal per game to Colorado's 30. ... Colorado has 67 hits in the series to Minnesota's 62. ... The Wild has blocked 28 shots, while Colorado has blocked 42.

Rockies relief pitcher John Axford, who hasn't pitched for the team since last Wednesday, was forced to leave spring training camp after his 2-year-old son was bit by a rattlesnake twice in his right foot.

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